1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to internet-based telephone access to prepaid card and pin systems, and more particularly to permitting a caller to originate a voice-based telephone call from a device attached to the internet and call any telephone number attached to a public switched telephone network (PSTN) while using prepaid card/support services.
2. Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, currently calling parties only use a standard voice-only telephone 101 to access pre-paid calling card/support services when making a call through a PSTN 102. This procedure may be expensive, especially when the calling party is making an international call. When a caller is calling within U.S., a local telephone phone company typically charges an access fee to telecommunications service providers providing calling card services for the call to a calling card communication system. This initial call is typically referred to as an A-leg of a calling card call.
An alternate way of making this call includes wireless calls made to the calling card communication systems. Calls using a wireless telephone 111 are made through a wireless network 112 that will likely incur costs associated with both making the A-leg call as well as a similar access fee in addition to the fee charges for land-line based calls. Increasingly, calling parties are able to make voice-based telephone calls that are initiated using a personal computer (PC) 121 over the internet 122. These internet-based phone calls are not convenient for many callers, because an internet-based call typically requires a called party to turn on his or her PC and have it connected to the internet before the call may be initiated. Additionally, the calling party typically cannot place a call to a standard voice-only telephone number 103.
The standard voice-only telephone 101 also presents a user with difficulty when entering any information other than number, e.g. it is very difficult to enter an address and a person""s name. Systems connecting with a standard voice-only telephone 101 typically depend on an operator service or a voice recognition system to permit input of additional information from a standard voice-only telephone. Both of these solutions to permitting input of non-numeric data are expensive to telecommunications providers and not user friendly to the calling party. However, calling card systems typically require the input of non-numeric data to set up a customer""s account as well as add additional funds to an existing pre-paid calling card. This non-numeric information includes customer name, customer address, telephone numbers, and credit card information needed to permit billing of the cost for the calling card. The standard voice-only telephone 101 is very difficult to use to retrieve the text information; such telephones usually rely upon expensive Text to Speech hardware and software to convert the text to audio that is played to the caller.
An internet gateway may be utilized to bridge an internet-based telephone connection to a prepaid Card/Support PIN system while addressing the above problems. It eliminates the cost of the A-leg as the calling party only needs to pay the cost of the connection from the Gateway to the called party. This connection is typically called a B-leg. Because there is no A-Leg outside of telecommunication service provider""s network, the provider does not need to pay the access fee to the local phone company. The internet user may call any number attached to a PSTN. The internet gateway permits the calling party using the internet telephone running on a PC connection to easily enter and retrieve any text information using a web browser, such as address and name without any human intervention and any expensive Text to Speech or Speech Recognition Hardware and Software.
The present invention provides pre-paid telephone calling card services to a calling party using an internet-based IP Phone process running on a personal computer. Using this IP Phone process, the calling party can initiate a voice-based call to a called party""s telephone. The method comprises initiating an A-leg connection between the IP Phone process and an internet gateway utilizing a computer network that connects the personal computer and the internet gateway; establishing a telephone connection between the internet gateway and a Service Control Point (xe2x80x9cSCPxe2x80x9d) wherein the SCP is coupled to a public switched telephone network; transmitting a request by the SCP to the calling party through the IP Phone process to provide account and call information; receiving account and call information using the internet gateway from the IP Phone process; transmitting the information to the SCP using the internet gateway; transmitting an account query from the SCP to verify account and balance information for the calling party; if the account data is successfully verified, establishing a B-leg connection between the SCP and the called party telephone and connecting the A-leg and B-leg connection to establish the voice-based connection between the calling party and the called party.
A system in accordance with the principles of the present invention comprises a means for initiating an A-leg connection between the IP Phone process and an internet gateway utilizing a computer network connecting the personal computer and the internet gateway, means for establishing a telephone connection between the internet gateway and a SCP, the SCP is coupled to a public switched telephone network, means for transmitting a request by the SCP to the calling party through the IP Phone process to provide account and call information, means for receiving account and call information by the internet gateway from the IP Phone process, means for generating DTMF tones corresponding to ASCII characters received from the IP Phone process within the internet gateway, means for transmitting the DTMF tones from the internet gateway to the SCP, means for transmitting a query by the SCP to the Service Data Point (xe2x80x9cSDPxe2x80x9d), the query comprises an account number and a personal identification number, means for comparing the account number and personal identification number with an account database coupled to the SDP, means for verifying the account and balance information if the received account number and personal identification number matches the corresponding items within the database and the database possess a positive balance value, if the account data is successfully verified, means for establishing a B-leg connection between the SCP and the called party telephone; and means for connecting the A-leg and B-leg connection to establish the voice-based connection between the calling party and the called party telephone.
Other embodiments of a system in accordance with the principles of the invention may include alternate or optional additional aspects. One such aspect of the present invention is a method comprising initiating an A-leg connection from the IP Phone process and an internet gateway utilizing a computer network connecting the personal computer and the internet gateway, the internet gateway responds by establishing a telephone connection between the internet gateway and a SCP, the SCP is coupled to a public switched telephone network, receiving a request from the SCP to the calling party through the IP Phone process to provide account and call information, transmitting account and call information to the internet gateway by the IP Phone process, the internet gateway responds to receipt of account and call information by generating DTMF tones corresponding to ASCII characters received from the IP Phone and transmitting the DTMF tones to the SCP, causing the SCP to transmit a query to a SDP, the query comprises an account number and a personal identification number, the SDP responds to the query by comparing the account number and personal identification number with an account database coupled to the SDP and verifying the account and balance information if the received account number and personal identification number matches the corresponding items within the account database and the account database possess a positive balance value, and if the account data is successfully verified, causing the establishment of a B-leg connection between the SCP and the called party telephone, the SCP responds to the establishment of the B-leg connection by connecting the A-leg and B-leg connections in order to establish the voice-based connection between the calling party and the called party telephone.